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The Dark Heart: The Vault
COSG: The Dark Heart Chapter 5: The Vault Episode Body The descent into the corridor of the dark bunker was eerie, and the unsettling sensation of the events that had just occurred outside, continued to set in. Lance leading the way once more, but now with his senses peeled, intent on not setting off anymore traps. The doctors and Rhoen followed behind, with Iyra, and a wobbly Taylor losing ground. As he reached the bottom of the staircase, Lance could see a lone dim light at the end of the corridor, he didn’t know if he was imagining it or not, but sure enough, like the light at the end of the tunnel, it was. The hallway appeared to end there, though Lance wasn’t sure what was ahead, Roy seemed to be. The shamelessly bubbly doctor peaked over Lance’s should and confirmed that though, “There it is, the shaft, told you Lance!” he said with a smile, patting Lance on the back. Somber as the others, Lance didn’t react, he only shrugged and pushed forward, by now, he just wanted to get back to the ship before anything worse happened. As the group walked forward, Taylor stopped in his tracks, his legs were still pumping involuntarily as his muscles continued to spasm like rapid twitches of nervousness, the adrenaline was pounding through him and hadn’t ceased. He dropped back, leaning over and bracing his hands against his knees. Deep breaths through his nose, his visor was fogging as he tried to stabilize himself. Lance looked back, noticing Taylor distraught and responded mindfully, “You okay?” he asked. Taylor didn’t look over to his superior, just raised one hand gave him a thumbs up. Iyra, however stopped, and waved the others forward, “Go.” she ordered them faintly, “I’ll talk to him, we’ll catch up.” She proposed, feeling he needed, deserved a moment of rest. The CO gave a nod, and motioned the others to follow him, Iyra watched as they entered the elevator, waiting for it to descend before speaking to Taylor, who had now leaned up against the wall, hands on his hips as his breath had slowed down now. “Hey, hey” Iyra clapped out, wiping the frost from Taylor’s visor, “You’re okay, you’re okay.” She could see his eyes clearly now, the dim blue like the ocean in a storm, but they winced as he battled back everything he was feeling. He took a few more breaths, and relaxed some, enough to speak, biting his tounge as his adrenaline sought ways to filter out “I don’t… that’s, that’s not what I wanted to happen.” He chattered out, trying to establish some composure. “I tried, I tried so hard to, to save Nidel. I didn’t, I just didn’t expect anything like that to happen.” “You did what you could.” Iyra eased him, “Nidel knew the risk, Lance is right, I mean that’s all apart of this Taylor.” It wasn’t good enough for Taylor, he knew Nidel saved him, “Iyra, he could of let me die. That’s right, he saved my life, if only I paid attention, if only I looked around and saw that hairy ass gorilla mother fucker, I, we could of avoided all of this.” Iyra answered back immediately, “ What’s happened has happened, you can’t change, but we need you” she paused, “I need you to hold it together. You’re still here, Nidel died saving you, now don’t back down from this, this is your dream right? You already got a second chance. You’re going to be okay, I promise.” She said again with a hopeful if somewhat forced smile. Taylor took another deep breath and nodded, between Lance’s cold demeanor, and Saelian’s incessant indignation, it was a relief to have someone there, and for Taylor, it was all the better being Iyra. “Alright, you’re right.” “You good now?” She asked, Taylor answered with a thumbs up and another deep breath as he relaxed. “Good, let’s go.” She turned to walk towards the lift before throwing out one more piece of information, “For what it’s worth, I was really worried something would happen to you, we all were, I’m glad you’re okay. And don’t take what that turian said about you personally, he lost a friend too.. Heat of the moment you know?” It was a comforting sentiment, though they hadn’t known each other long, Taylor felt like Iyra was his first actual friend on the ship, and all it took was a near death experience. He firced a smile to the best of his ability, “I’ll try to stay okay.” Rhoen’s voice broke through on the comms, “Hey you two, you’re going to want to see this.” He spoke ominously into the mic, “I’m bringing the lift back up.” The two looked at each other with some level of interest in regards to Rhoen’s statement and a sense of curiosity swept over the two as they awaited Rhoen. The elevator screeching out noise as it rose, ancient metal scraping together. As it reached the top, there stood Rhoen, still expressionless as he was before, whatever was down there sure wasn’t dangerous if you could judge by Rhoen’s demeanor, a relief to both Iyra and Taylor. “What is it?” Iyra asked peculiarly. Rhoen signalled them onto the lift, “You’ll just have to see.” The two walked onto the elevator, and Rhoen hit the button, it began its descent, slowly dropping down between the tightly packed shaft. The old beige, sanded down, worn out walls slowly grinded by before suddenly the shaft ended, opening up into a massive, gaping hexagonal hallway, a sudden burst of light, far more than what they experienced above greeted them, though it adjusted, and there sat an astounding side. They lowered down, still a hundred feet above the floor itself, pods lined the walls of the monumental corridor, hundreds of them decorating the curved walls, each secured and fastened in by wires and metallic restraints. The lights were running above on the top of the access way, shining bright, the dust and mist could be seen floating in their light. Both Taylor and Iyra were amazed by the sight, absolutely blown away by the sight, the nerves had even died down in Taylor, he had just succumbed to the view, even forgetting to breath for a moment. As the lift hit the ground floor, a light jolt shook and Rhoen stepped off, looking back to the others, “It’s really something isn’t it?” Iyra nodded, still enthralled by the sight as she gazed around the all, “Yeah I’ve never seen anything like it.” “Neither have I.” Rhoen added, “And I’ve seen a lot of shit.” Drawing on his past experience, he had never seen a bunker of this size, and this well kept, especially after 50,000 years. Ahead they could see the rest of the team, the room was so large that they looked like action figures standing in the distance. The three trotted through the room, their footsteps echoing with each step, as did the voices ahead of them, and aside from those sounds, it was absolutely quiet, like massive library on a Sunday morning. The others momentarily glanced back before returning to the view, Lance too, was bewildered by the sight as he greeted Taylor, “Welcome back, feeling better? Place is something isn’t it?” “Yeah.” Taylor muttered, still looking around the room in disbelief, “What are all these pods?” Iyra had heard tales of the ruins on Ilos, the massive corridors decorated with cryo pods. “Are these, cryo pods?” she questioned, “I’ve heard about what was on Ilos...” Roy nodded, the grin across his face was quite enthusiastic, “I believe so, but it doesn’t look like any” he paused as he scanned the room, “Any are active, they all appear to be quite disabled.” It was a grim thought to imagine that, they were standing in a crypt if that was the case, the sight of the room didn’t appear to be so magnificent anymore to any of the explorers that connected the dots. “The main room is more than likely ahead, onward my friends.” Albrighton sped ahead, juiced up and keen to get on with his expedition, the other two researchers followed behind quickly, all more lively than Taylor, Lance, Iyra, and Rhoen. The idea of being in a Prothean crypt weighed heavy on their minds. They followed behind the exuberant researches, between a divide and then into another massive pod filled corridor. At the end of the hallway was a smaller door, it wasn’t completely open, but just slightly it had been split down the middle, as if was it barely left cracked. Rhoen took no time to put himself to work, “Don’t worry, the krogan comes in handy now.” He announced with a smile as he approached, jamming his hands between the opening. He flexed, making the task look simple as he forced the two doors apart. “Be careful not to break anything.” Quell muttered, slightly irked at the thought of the brutish krogan species being around anything so possibly fragile, though his demeanor changed as Rhoen stared him down, feigning angered offense. However Rhoen quickly flashed a grin and a chuckle, he was only teasing the doctor and gave him a pat on the back with enough force that it caused the salarian to stumble into through the doorway. As they entered the sight of another vast room welcomed the explorers, octagonal in shape and spanning high towards the ceiling, old lights beamed down, pods once again decorating the sides of the tunnel, as well as aged work equipment. Some still attached to their supports, the lirf others broken along the floor. Directly across from them, about 30 feet above the floor was an observatory built into the wall, a door beneath it and several other doors dotted the sides of the room. “Here it is.” Olassia announced confidently, “The control center for the bunker.” Roy was pleased, smiling he gave Lance a pat on the back, “We’re here Lance, quest almost over.” Lance snarled, “Let’s hope this isn’t a dead end.” They quickly trekked across the room, glancing up and down the surrounding walls at all the dark pods, they headed straight for the door beneath the observatory. “You know where you’re going?” Rhoen asked the researchers. “I was expecting a minute to breath.” Iyra injected, “Thought you research types were the ones that combed over entire rooms for the smallest details.” Roy smiled, “Well, the prize” he said with emphasis, “Is the most important goal here, we know what we’re here for and nothing else matters.” Quell approached the door first, scanning it once more with his omni tool as he did outside. He incoherently muttered under his breath before announcing to the others, “It’s locked, can’t override this one, but there has to be a manual override nearby though.” Lance looked around, there was another door on either side of the room, “I’ll stay here with you.” He said to Quell, before looking to the others, “Taylor and Iyra, why don’t you two go with Roy, and Rhoen with Olassia, see what you can find.” It was the most thrilling idea to Taylor, splitting up once more but he didn’t protest, just guaranteeing himself he’d stay as close to Iyra and Roy as he could. No surprises this time. It was a quiet walk to the door, their footsteps and the footsteps of the others echoed around them. Roy was still enveloped in the sights of the ancient bunker, like a kid in a candy store he expressed himself, “I have seen many a prothean ruin, but I have never been fortunate enough to find one of these cyro bunkers. Incredible isn’t it?” “I guess so.” Iyra replied, still somewhat shaken by the eerie crypt like bunker ”Not sure but something about this place sends a chill up my spine.” Taylor smirked, “Oh no! Is Iyra scared? The prothean mummies could be coming!” He held his hands up with some animation, “Spoooky!” “Shaaat up.” Iyra languished out giving Taylor a surprisingly tough, but friendly punch in the arm. The doctor smiled, ever so charmingly, the aura of a confident and inspired man surrounded him, “I’ve been doing this my whole life, but I’d be lying if I ever proclaimed it didn’t incite fear occasionally. Undoubtedly that’s just what’s magnificent about it, the adventure, the thrill, never knowing what you’ll find next. Isn’t that all any of us want? Where else, I mean, how often are you going to endure adventures like this, how often will you be able to replicate moments like these?” Both Iyra and Taylor looked at each other for a moment realizing the Doctor had an interesting point. For Taylor specifically what had transpired in the past few hours was chaotic but foreign to him, events that he had never imagined witnessing occurred. “Yeah, yeah you’re right, stories like these are priceless.” “Like my father always said.” Roy added, “We’ll always endure hardships, struggles, but you have to fight through it, rise to the occasion. For being a scientist, I’ve lost quite a few friends in this line of work. You can’t let it stop you, you signed that mental contract when you came out here, you will have loss out here, but you’ll discover so much more.” It was an enlightening and surprising statement for both Iyra and Taylor, who till this point thought Roy was nothing more than a quirky pencil pusher rushing into danger. “Deep Roy. Didn’t expect emotional life lessons from you.” Iyra remarked. Roy smiled and nodded, “From everything I do, I will always learn.” They passed through the hallway, it was barren as they glided across several open doors, leading into old battered rooms, living quarters, kitchens, other basic accommodations, this wasn’t just a bunker, it was a home. Iyra herself was having menacing thoughts, though she didn’t live with, it made the reality of the Reapers seem so much more real. As they rounded a corner they were met by a steep staircase, at the top was a mostly dark room, aside from what seemed like several flickering lights. “Well up we go.” Roy remarked. “Right up the scary stairwell.” Iyra chimed, “Don’t watch many scary movies do you Doc?” Taylor took the time to troll Iyra again, “rIgHt uP tHE sCaRy sTAiRweLl?!” He mocked with a deep goofy voice, “You are scared. It’s okay, you’re only like, 80 right?” She rolled her eyes and simpered, following behind the doctor up into the room, and as they reached it wasn’t anywhere near as ominous as it seemed, just a chaotic disaster, like a messy child’s room. Half the room was only lit by the dying light, with everything else shrouded by darkness. Old broken desk and furniture scattered the scene, as well as empty and spilled supply boxes, strange monitor like screens, all broke. A planter was in the corner of the room, and oddly enough, the flora within was still alive, overgrown and stretched across the corner of the wall, but still alive nonetheless. Near the mess was an old worn down console. Roy avidly approached the console, wiping the dust from it. His prothean experience showing, he smoothly fiddled around with its controls, and suddenly it buzzed on. The fact this 50,000 year old technology still worked, surprised both Taylor and Iyra. Roy grinned brightly as the screen lit up, “We’re in, whatever this might be, just a moment.” The console was scripted in Prothean, Roy had to take another moment to translate it, “And now we’re set, let’s see what secrets this place has.” A surprised look shot across his face, “Well, that’s interesting. The cryo pods, they’re, they’re all empty.” “This entire place?” Iyra asked, she thought for a moment, “Does that mean, they survived the war?” Roy shook his head, “No, these pods were never used, this station never went online. Mission status just prompts incomplete, whatever the Protheans meant to do, never came to fruition.” “Better than being surrounded by dead bodies still.” Taylor remarked, slightly relieved that they weren’t actually in a massive crypt. “I suppose so.” Roy mumbled as he continued through the console, “It was meant to hold thousands, I struggle to think what went wrong, but there it is, door controls.” he configured the console once again before proclaiming, “That should unlock the door, I’m sure we’ll find out more inside of there, and the clue me and my team are searching for.” Lance broke in on the comms, confirming the Doctor’s confidence, “Whatever you guys did, the door is open.” “Wasn’t us.” Rhoen barked back into the mic. “That would be Doctor Roy over here, you’re welcome, we’re on our way back.” Iyra passed the word onto the others, before nodding to Taylor and Roy to head back. The entire team regrouped back in the main room, the door now opened in front of them, it was dark, a different material from the rest of the structure, like smooth-metal rather than old solid concrete like material. They stepped in slowly, Lance leading the way, immediately it split into two stairways, leading up to the room above. They split apart, half the team heading up one, and half the other way. As they reached the top, they stood in the observatory, it was clean, for the most part, sleek in design, several computers and consoles decorated the room, all dark and offline, on the back side of the room was another sealed door. “The central control.” Olassia declared, looking for anything that was functioning, “Odd, unlike the rest of the bunker, nothing appears to be on.” She walked towards the door in the back, it still had power, but the red light indicated it too was locked. “And another locked door. This is beginning to get old” “Well let’s find a way to unlock.” Lance suggested somewhat aggressively. “We’ve done it three times already.” The team members began to search around the room, looking for any sign of a power system. Shuffling through, Lance approached the center console, slowly as he could see along the armrest, something lied, still, but the shadow covered whatever it was. He raised his rifle with one and reached out with the other. He quickly grabbed the chair and whipped it around. A rattle of sounds echoed out and there sat a grisly sight. A skeleton, prothean in build was slumped on the chair, the 50,000 years hadn’t decayed it completely for one reason, the black and blue gnarly and twisted prosthetics and synthetic modifications that lined the husk, the Prothean, when it was alive was hardly organic. “Check this guy out.” Roy, Olassia, and Rhoen each took notice of what the body was, “That’s Reaper tech.” Rhoen declared, reflecting on everything he had seen in the Reaper war. “I know that sight anywhere.” It brought back the memories of the war for Olassia, she felt a chill go up her spine, though it was over for and the Reapers were gone, what they did was still fresh in her mind. “What happened here?” she questioned as her voice trembled. Roy noticed the skeleton’s hand covering something on the console, and casually brushed away the ancient corpse’s arm, “Pardon me”. It revealed a control panel, similar to ones he had seen on other expeditions, a reboot system. He triggered it, and the machine came online, humming and buzzing as it powered up, its main screen lit up, and the lights in the room as well as the other consoles turned on, “I make it look so easy.” “Yeah yeah we get it.” Lance whispered under his breath as he looked around the room. The doctor ran through some of the console’s controls before a projector next to him activated, revealing a badly damaged, hazy, purple colored, fading, prothean VI. The intelligence sputtered out lines, ineligible, broken apart but it slowly started to become clearer and clear, in prothean however. “Translating.” Roy announced as he awaited the process. Within a moment it became understandable “Reboot in process. Initializing system restart. Welcome to the Ourian Bunker. Mission Status is: Incomplete.” The VI declared, “Zero of the 25,000 Cryo Pods are online. The key remains in lockdown.” “The key…” Olassia mumbled, “The key to the Heart of Vey’Kosa...that’s what’s here.” “Not so fast.” Roy prompted the VI with a question, it could only respond to basic request. “Information and status of the key?” “The key was the catalyst to the Dark Heart, separated from its home and secured here, to ensure the heart would never be found by the Reapers. Mission prerogative was to release the frozen Prothean population after the Reaper invasion, thus allowing them to return to the Heart, relocate, and utilize to defeat the Reapers in the following cycle. Director Illiac commenced lockdown procedures before the vault could be filled. Lockdown has been breached.” The information made Roy ponder what the Protheans intended on doing with the Dark Heart. “What is the Dark Heart?” Roy asked. “That information is unavailable, it has been removed from my databanks.” The intelligence informed. Olassia and Roy shot each other a look, “Removed, but why?” Olassia wondered. “Where is the heart?” Roy then asked of the VI. “The exact location is unavailable, however is confirmed to be within the confines of Numia, on the edge of the outer rim. Centuries before the arrival of the Reapers, we waged war with Tekkunan, their leader Vey’Kosa wielded the power from the Dark Heart, a weapon of mass destruction.” the team all looked at each other, they were on the right track and this was the information they were searching for. “Vey’Kosa and the last of his loyal allies disappeared on Numia, after the Prothean fleet’s bombardment buried his fortress, not before we retrieved the key to the Dark Heart. Believing the Heart to no longer be a threat, we sealed the key away, until the arrival of the Reapers. As our people sought any fighting chance, we attempted to recover the Heart, to no avail, as the Reapers annihilated us on Numia. This outpost was established to house a large enough population to seek out the Heart and unlock its true potential, a weapon against the Reapers in the next cycle. Mission status is: incomplete. Zero of the 25,000 Cryo Pods are in use.” It repeated itself once more. Roy smiled to the others, “This is huge. A weapon!” Rhoen rolled his jaw in a circle, the fact the Reapers feared made him question what it could, “If the Reapers sought to destroy this thing, it makes me think it’s best left a mystery.” “This discovery is going to be monumental, it has to be for the good if the Reapers wanted it gone.” Olassia declared, opposing the view of Rhoen. “It’s a weapon of mass destruction.” Iyra added in a discouraging tone. The VI spoke once more, “Recorded logs of Director Illiac are available.” “Play the logs.” Roy ordered quickly, eager to discover what had happened here. The logs started, the Protheans voice was jagged and harsh, slightly manipulated by the huskification he had undergone. “I’ve done it, I’ve done as they asked.” He was taking heavy breaths, “Those fools, convinced, going behind their backs, trying to hide, that they could escape them. The Reapers are eternal, we are their servants, as such we must obey, if we obey we can stand alongside them, they will enlighten us. They have already accepted me, and as such, I must succeed for them. The fate of life in this galaxy, depends on it. The lockdown has been initiated, I am all that remains within the bunker, the others will meet their fate for their treachery, the Reapers, Harbinger, is on its way. Their judgement will be swift.” The log ended, a dark, dire, message, indoctrination had plagued the species of the galaxy during this cycle, and it did for the Protheans before them. The entire team was quite as they took a moment to settle the nerves that had rattled, but Rhoen spoke out, “Wow. What a dick.” he stated bluntly. Taylor snorted out a laugh, “Bitch-made.” “I can’t believe this, what a coward.” Roy said, disappointed with what he just heard, “We need to find this Heart now, all the more reason too, if the Reapers feared it, imagine what it could be.” Iyra was still unsure finding this object was a good idea, “That’s what I’m afraid of.” Roy shrugged off her doubts and requested more from the VI, “Lift the lockdown.” “Disengaging bunker lockdown. Mission status is: incomplete” hearing the door behind them open Roy shut off the console, much to the relief of the entire team, as the VI meant to repeat itself again. He quickly turned to the door, striding with pace into the room, it was small, untouched, clean, sleek and shining with facets and constructs lining the sides of the circular area. In the middle was a pedestal, seated inside of it, floating was a strange cube shaped metallic device, glowing with slanted green lights across it. It stood out. Roy, with haste walked right towards it carelessly and reached inward, his eyes bigger than his stomach, but as he did his hand sparked and lit with stinging burning pain as he touched an invisible barrier surrounding the device. He pulled back quickly, shouting in pain as he patted his hand on his legs, “Shit!” the barrier burned straight through his hardsuit’s fingertips, and grazed his fingers themselves. Olassia and Lance darted over to him to make sure he was alright, “What the hell?” Lance barked out, “Are you alright?” The Doctor was catching his breath, “Yeah, just, surprised, there’s a barrier.” Taylor glanced over to Iyra, “That’s what happens when you’re impatient.” he whispered. Quell went straight to scanning it, “Amazing, there’s no conduit. No power source, I’m not sure how the Protheans engineered it. This is a self sustained ezo barrier.” Olassia thought for a moment, pondering a solution, “I might have an idea, maybe I can create a biotic barrier… Hold it long enough to remove the key.” “Can you handle that?” Iyra asked, not knowing if the Doctor was adept enough, “Me or, maybe even Taylor can do it.” Taylor shot her raised eyebrow and an offended expression, “Maybe even Taylor? I stick my hand in barriers for breakfast.” He thought about the implications of his statement, “Wait, nevermind.” “Olassia, I’m not sure that’s the best idea.” Roy implied, still shaking out the pain in his hand. “No, no I can do it.” Olassia assured confidently. She approached it with caution, now starting to second guess her idea, “I’ll just be careful. And quick.” She took a deep breath, her biotics flaring up as the mass effect field formed around her, and she swallowed her nerves, sticking her hand forward. As it touched the invisible barrier, she felt it fight back like pushing into a wind turbine, but pushed forward, the barrier breaking and bending around her hand as she pushed through, her field was holding up. She pressed ahead, her fingertips first grazing the key, and as her palm drew closer, she could feel a strange energy, like a buzzing inside of her body. Then she grasped it, and like that it all happened at once, the key hummed at a great volume, the barrier exploded, sending out a wave of harmless energy across the room. It all startled Olassia who instinctively braced, wincing as the key suddenly collapsed, reformed, and swarmed up her like a collection of sinister ants moving to destroy a picnic, her heart stopped, and everyone in the room froze, frightened as to what was happening when suddenly, the pieces lit up, fusing and dissipating into Olassia’s arm. She pulled her arm back and dropped to her knees, not in pain, just shock, she looked at her palm, a single green light illuminated beneath her skin, and faded into nothing. The others surrounded her to make sure she was okay as not even a noise erupted from her through the entire process, “Olassia, Olassia?!” Roy beckoned, “Are you okay?” She nodded, feeling no pain, or anything different, “I think so…” “What the fuck was all of that about?” Taylor asked. Quell went straight to scanning her, “Everything looks normal, except, except wow… there’s almost encrypted data within you now. You absorbed the key.” His eyes grew large. Olassia had a look of uncertainty, not sure what to think, “Am I, Am I okay?” “Yes, your vitals are fine, we'll need a full scan on board the Aetherius, but it looks like you're okay” Quell paused, “But..” Olassia looked at her hand, coming to a conclusion before Quell could, “I am the key…” She muttered as she stared at her hand. The others seemed to look at each with questionable expressions, that is what seemed to be the case now. “It transmuted into me.” Roy leaned down next to her, “Well Olassia my friend, you just became apart of this mystery, the most important part.” She was still taking deep breaths, the sentiment didn’t make her feel any less dubious of the situation. Lance activated his comms, calling back to the ground team above, “Saelian, Kiara, get the rovers ready, we’re coming back up, things just got interesting.” Iyra looked over to Taylor and gleamed an amused look, “Here’s our adventure Taylor, I hope you’re ready.” He smiled back and nodded, “Yeah. For real..” The thought of what had happened here still loomed on both of their minds, Nidel’s death, the Prothean’s logs, and the key fusing with Olassia, it was like something neither of them ever could imagine. Now, they were just left wondering what Numia had in store, what was on the horizon for this journey…. Apperances Characters *Lance Shaw *Roy Albrighton *Olassia Amore *Quell Satch *Taylor McClellan *Iyra Aldonia *Morkgul Rhoen *Director Illiac (Mentioned) *Saelian Praxiun (Mentioned) Species *Prothean (Mentioned) *Tekkunan (Mentioned) Locations *Zerxia **The Vault *Ilos (Mentioned) *Numia (Mentioned) Technology *The Dark Heart Trivia Category:COSG Category:Chronicles of a Silent Galaxy Category:Articles by WolfOfTheEast Category:WolfOfTheEast Category:Chapters